In previous reports this year, we’ve covered Bill C-9‘s potential risks, ways Christians could respond prayerfully, and the bill’s significance in a broader global context, including developments in Finland.

Since the bill’s introduction in September, tens if not hundreds of thousands of Canadians voiced concerns about its potential negative impact on religious freedom. The bill removed a “good faith” religious belief defense previously in place. Critics also said its definition of what constitutes hatred could be misused. 

“The majority of people that called in and raised their voice were Christian, but a number of other religious groups did as well, and joined together to write their MPs [Members of Parliament] and make their voices heard in parliament,” says Floyd Brobbel with Voice of the Martyrs Canada.

“We’re in a society where you speak truth and where you cause offense, some people are labeling that as hate. So it is concerning, and other religious groups should be concerned, because it doesn’t just affect the Church.”

Canada is a home to many nations and religious groups; Canada Day celebrations (photo courtesy of Andy Holmes via Unsplash)

Anti-semitism has risen in Canada, making hate-motivated actions a legitimate battle. However, motives are not always easy to discern.

“I think that’s the key word that they’re trying to figure out: what is the intention of the person that is preaching, even if it is from sacred texts?” Brobbel says. “How are we going to be able to determine, you know, what is the intent behind somebody preaching a particular verse in Scripture?”

He adds, “That’s the concern: that the bill didn’t make anything clear, it just seemed to make things more unclear.” 

Pray for wisdom and justice among Canada’s government leaders. They state that with the Bill C-9 legislation, freedom of expression and religion remain protected in Canada. The ramifications of the new law have yet to be tested, however.

Pray also for godly boldness among church leaders. Although many in Canada are disappointed and wary about the new law, Brobbel says the call for Christians remains unchanged.

“At this point, there’s nothing in Bill C-9 that, I think, would hinder us from continuing to preach the Word. We’ll see how the removal of the ‘good faith’ religious belief defense will play out, but this should not hinder us from moving forward,” he says. 

“There’s a difference between standing up for what we believe and promoting hatred towards a group because they’re acting a certain way. [We are called] to do good to all, so that God will be honored and glorified. Part of that is preaching the gospel and speaking truth in love and calling out righteous living and demonstrating that, and not shrinking away from that in the public.” 

Header photo: Canada’s Parliament building (Stock photo courtesy of Benoit Debaix via Unsplash)

It’s a generation-defining conflict, and Jews For Jesus is responding to its aftermath. According to Aaron Abramson, the organization’s CEO, Jews For Jesus is “a group of Jewish people from Jewish backgrounds from around the world who have come to understand that Jesus is their Jewish Messiah, the foretold and promised Messiah they were waiting for.”

The organization’s efforts in Israel have expanded over the past ten years, especially in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. “We have a diverse range of ministries that we provide, anything from Russian-speaking ministry to Russian speakers; ministry to Israeli soldiers […] as they’re trying to figure out life and what faith looks like; ministry to children and youth, especially messianic families; ministry that is digital in the online space; and we have a whole bunch of other like arts ministries. Really all of that is contextualized to share the hope that we have.”

All of this has helped Jews For Jesus build the network and resources to be especially potent in the wake of the October 7th attacks and their aftermath.

“We were able to mobilize a whole bunch of Israeli volunteers, so not just believers in Jesus but volunteers who were able to say, ‘Hey, what does it mean to love your neighbor, and can we come alongside these people who are in need?’” Abramson says. “We reached out to provide that support for Israelis and they were desperately looking for hope. […] I was so encouraged that our teams were able to step up, help out, provide, and meet a need.”

That’s not to say everything has been easy. Anti-semitism has been on the rise at a global level. Jewish communities in Israel continue to feel more and more isolated as they lose resources and loved ones.

“It can be very difficult to stand in that space to say, ‘Hey, we want to be the hands and feet of Jesus in these contexts. We want to serve our people, but we also want to represent Jesus in these difficult contexts.”

In the face of that challenge, pray. 

“Praying is very, very powerful because there’s a spiritual component to all of this,” Abramson says. “Throughout this period, I’m encouraging Christians to say, ‘Let me reach out to the Jewish people in my community, wherever that may be, and say, maybe you’re hurting right now. I’m praying for you.’”

Learn more about Jews For Jesus here and consider how you might connect with their work. Ask God to use their team to work through the volatile crises in the places they call home.

Header photo courtesy of Unsplash.

It was the third deadly assault targeting Jews on U.S. soil in just over a year. As noted here by the Wall Street Journal, it’s part of a larger trend; anti-Semitic hate crimes rose 29% between 2015 and 2018.

“It creates a vulnerability that our community has not felt in several generations,” Rabbi Stewart Vogel told WSJ.

Uncharted Ministries founder Tom Doyle says this issue goes beyond U.S. borders: “There is… a lot of anti-Semitism in Europe; we’re seeing it on the college campuses in America… it’s growing around the world.”

Anti-Semitism in Europe

At the end of November, filmmakers debuted the documentary “Hate Among Us” in New York and California. The documentary cites events from both Europe and the U.S. as modern-day examples of growing anti-Semitism.

This 2005 photo depicts anti-Semitic graffiti in Klaipėda, Lithuania.
(Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)

David McKenzie, one of the film’s four executive producers, told Forbes:

“All these years after the Holocaust and the anger and the hostility that prevails against the Jewish community is still visible at alarming rates. We must educate the public about what is happening, and we must, both as a community and as a society, take a stance. We need to necessitate change. And we need to do it now.”

According to the Anti-Defamation League, one in four Europeans hold anti-Semitic beliefs. It’s most prevalent in Poland, Ukraine, and Hungary, but these views aren’t isolated. Hate crimes targeting Jewish people rose 18 percent last year in Germany, New Statesman America reports, and anti-Semitic incidents rose by 74 percent in France during the same time period.

“A guy that I met in the desert of Israel, he was from France, he had on a real nice necklace that had a menorah on it,” Doyle recalls from a recent Uncharted trip. “I said, ‘Oh, that’s pretty neat!’ and we’re talking…he says, ‘I’m just so glad that I can wear [the necklace] here’.”

When Doyle asked why, the man’s response surprised him.

“‘I would never wear a menorah in France, I would be beat up in certain areas.  It’s just too dangerous there’.”

Current trends in the U.S. follow a similar path.

Anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, or both?

Memorials for the victims of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
(Photo, caption courtesy of Dmitry Brant via Wikimedia Commons)

On October 27, 2018, a gunman opened fire in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, killing 11 people. Reports like this followed the attack, citing a steady rise of hate crimes targeting Jews since 2016.

Two weeks ago, U.S. President Trump signed an executive order denying federal funding to any universities deemed “supportive” of anti-Semitic rhetoric. Jewish groups like AJC and ADL praised the move. Others claim the order limits free speech by punishing criticism of Israel, or “anti-Israel” statements.

However, Doyle notes, one often leads to the other.

“Because of the political situation on the ground in Israel that is unsolvable between Jews and Palestinians, college campuses that lean way ‘left’ [politically] have adopted the thought that ‘everything is Israel’s fault’, and then that translates into anti-Semitism,” Doyle explains.

“People can agree or disagree on politics, but when it becomes racism, it’s no longer politics. That’s what’s happened because of the issues in Israel and the constant tension there – people have assumed it’s all Israel’s fault and that justifies anti-Semitism.”

How Christians can respond

Uncharted Ministries helps believers love the Jewish people in Jesus’ name. Learn more here.

“Israel’s a democracy. They’re a country like anyone else, and they make mistakes. They do good things, they do bad things, but God calls us in Scripture to bless them. So, we need to do that as believers,” Doyle says.

Additionally, as Christ’s followers, “we’re supposed to go to the hurting, we’re supposed to go to those that are being attacked,” he continues.

“Jesus always went to the least of these; He went to the marginalized, He went to the hated. I think we’re supposed to do that today.”

Specifically, “we need to tell Jewish people that we love them and we’re praying for them,” Doyle says. “We see the anti-Semitism and it’s wrong, and we’re against it.”

Header image courtesy of frankieleon via Flickr.

(Image courtesy Sergey Rakhuba via Facebook)

Ukraine (MNN) — Rhetoric was ramping up on all sides of the Ukraine crisis going into the weekend. Ukraine’s Prime Minister accused Moscow of escalating the conflict even further and undermining their efforts to move forward. At the same time, Russia announced a new round of “military exercises” on the Ukraine border and warned interim leaders about military action against citizens.

With the help of Russian Ministries, MNN is taking a closer look at religious targeting in the region.

“Today that part of the world–where Russia is interested in the Ukrainian part–is truly a troublesome area because the Jews are beginning to feel this pressure, discrimination,” states Wally Kulakoff with Russian Ministries.

“The Jews are feeling pressure to somehow pick up their roots and leave, and join their relatives in Israel, in Europe.”

Controversial flyers distributed a few weeks ago in Donetsk, requiring Jews to register with the government or face punishment, are only the tip of an anti-Semitic iceberg.

In Ukraine, Russia, and Europe, “There is a growing set of Nazi and neo-Nazi movements that are very difficult for Americans to absorb as real,” Richard Brodsky told NPR on Friday. Brodsky is a Senior Fellow at the U.S. public policy group, Demos.

“The evidence across Europe, Russia, and particularly Ukraine, is that this stuff is real, it’s growing, and it’s got to be first identified and then spoken about.”

In Crimea, the letters U-S-S-R and this symbol were spray-painted in red on the Holocaust Museum.
(Photo credit: Hugo via Flickr)

According to Brodsky, antisemitism has existed in the region for some time but is now getting more attention because of the Ukraine-Russia crisis.

Both Russia’s and Ukraine’s governments blame the other for Donetsk’s anti-Semitic flyers, but that’s not the only city where discrimination is taking place. In Crimea, the letters U-S-S-R, along with a hammer and sickle, were spray-painted in red on the Holocaust Museum. In Dnepropetrovsk, vandals spray-painted swastikas on the tomb of a well-known Jewish figure.

“In 1926, there were over 3 million Jews [in Ukraine],” Kulakoff observes. “Today, in 2014, there are just over 60,000 Jews.

“I think we will see not only the business-drain but the brain-drain …[as] Jews will slowly leave that part of the world where they’re not welcome.”

Jews in eastern Ukraine aren’t the only religious group being picked on. According to Kulakoff, evangelical Christians in Russia are under fire, too.

“There’s a new term that I heard in Russia: a Baptist is a terrorist. When you begin to include an evangelical as an extreme wing, I think that’s very dangerous,” he says.

The interim President of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, is known to be an evangelical Christian affiliated with the Baptist denomination. Russia adamantly denies the validity of Turchynov, as well as his entire administration.

For “anyone who belongs to a Baptist church, they [Russian officials] claim that he has some ties with Ukraine, some ties with anti-government feelings, anti-government actions. And that is very, very frightening,” adds Kulakoff.

Baptist missionaries in Russia have already been interrogated by authorities.

Anti-Semitic graffiti in Lithuania.
(Photo cred: Beny Shlevich via Flickr)

Russian Ministries has an office in Kiev, and Kulakoff says their contacts are greatly concerned by the latest developments. This week, there is a forum in Kiev on Jewish Evangelism, he adds, and there will be much discussion on helping Jews who are coming out of Crimea because of pressure from Russian extreme forces.

“Our contacts in Ukraine are telling us that these times will be hard times,” states Kulakoff.

“But it will be a time of spiritual awakening across Ukraine because people are forced on their knees. People are coming to the Lord, and so we as an organization need to be ready because Ukraine will experience a spiritual awakening like we have never seen before.”

See how you can help families in Ukraine through Russian Ministries.

“Let’s pray for families,” Kulakoff suggests. “Let’s provide for them and let’s petition for them.”